It is common to modify vehicles, homes, commercial properties or other types of properties to suit the tastes and requirements of the user or owner. As such, it is often necessary to install new subsystems or modify existing subsystems after the user or owner has taken possession of the property. One such subsystem is an alarm system, for example a burglar or fire alarm.
For a variety of reasons vehicle alarm systems are particularly difficult to install. First, there are many different alarm manufacturers. Second, vehicle alarms can be configured to include any combination of a variety of different functions. Such functions may include, for example, door sensors, window sensors, motion sensors, location sensors (e.g., global positioning system (GPS) sensors), engine status sensors, CO sensors, CO2 sensors, seat pressure sensors, floor pressure sensors, sound sensors, engine kill switches, position notification systems, alarm notification systems, local interfaces, etc. Third, vehicle alarm systems are continually changing due to the rapid advancements in related technologies. For example, only recently have GPS systems become a readily available alarm option. Fourth, there are literally thousands of possible vehicle configurations due to the large number of manufacturers, each offering a variety of different models, the models generally changing on an annual basis. Fifth, due to the sophisticated designs of most vehicles, especially those within the last decade, alarm installers face dramatic space constraints and increased difficulty in interfacing the alarm with the vehicle's subsystems (e.g., vehicle electronics used to diagnose and control the engine's performance).
For the reasons noted above, the installation of after-market hardware, especially vehicle alarms, has become a highly specialized skill. Installing such hardware typically requires the installer to repeatedly stop the installation process in order to review an alarm manual or schematic, review a vehicle manual or schematic, or contact the manufacturer of the vehicle, alarm or alarm component in order to obtain additional information. Adding to the installer's frustration is the fact that much of the alarm hardware must be installed in difficult to reach locations, thereby placing the installer in a variety of awkward positions. Requiring the installer to repeatedly stop the installation process to consult various installation sources means that the installer must continually move in and out of these awkward positions. As a result of the afore mentioned problems, alarm installations are often quite expensive, take longer to complete than expected, and are of inferior quality.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a means of simplifying the installation process, and in particular the installation process associated with alarm systems. The present invention offers such a means.